Today is
There are tons of great book trailers out in cyberland, and each Friday I will endeavor to bring a couple to you. Many will be new and recent books. Some trailers will preview a not-yet-released book. And others will look back a little further.
Lights…Camera…Action!
A doll that may be haunted leads three friends on a thrilling adventure in this delightfully creepy novel from the New York Times bestselling cocreator of the Spiderwick Chronicles.
Zach, Poppy, and Alice have been friends forever. And for almost as long, they’ve been playing one continuous, ever-changing game of pirates and thieves, mermaids and warriors. Ruling over all is the Great Queen, a bone-china doll cursing those who displease her.
But they are in middle school now. Zach’s father pushes him to give up make-believe, and Zach quits the game. Their friendship might be over, until Poppy declares she’s been having dreams about the Queen—and the ghost of a girl who will not rest until the bone-china doll is buried in her empty grave.
Zach and Alice and Poppy set off on one last adventure to lay the Queen’s ghost to rest. But nothing goes according to plan, and as their adventure turns into an epic journey, creepy things begin to happen. Is the doll just a doll or something more sinister? And if there really is a ghost, will it let them go now that it has them in its clutches?
“The False Prince” was fine old-fashioned entertainment about an heir to the throne in disguise. This second book in Nielsen’s Ascendance Trilogy returns to the adventures of young King Jaron (who masqueraded as the orphan Sage in the first book) and continues the same page-turning suspense and nifty plot twists that made the first book so much fun. (This book is keyed to a slightly older audience, probably because of the rather grim amount of bloody violence.) Just weeks after Jaron has claimed the throne, in a kingdom under siege from all sides, he barely escapes an assassination attempt and decides for the good of the kingdom he must flee. As in the first book, he must maintain a constant juggling act, wondering whom to trust and recklessly gambling with his own life as he joins a pirate band led by bloodthirsty pirate King Devlin in the intriguingly colorful setting of a pirate hangout in Tarblade Bay. Nielsen offers memorable characters, a complex world of feuding kingdoms complete with maps and a vivid political backdrop as a maturing Jaron confronts the difficult realities that come with his kingly responsibilities. This book raises interesting questions about loyalty, war and the personal sacrifices required of a leader, particularly when it comes to Jaron’s friendships with Imogen and Amarinda, a romantic triangle that will interest the older readers in the books’ target audience.
{Eat the Book} 